{"id":473396,"date":"2026-09-23T20:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T20:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/473396\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T20:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T20:12:08","slug":"phylicia-rashad-to-direct-august-wilsons-fences-at-mark-taper-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/473396\/","title":{"rendered":"Phylicia Rashad to Direct August Wilson\u2019s ‘Fences’ at Mark Taper Forum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPhylicia Rashad<\/a> is heading to downtown Los Angeles for her next directing project.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe multi-hyphenate talent has been tapped to direct an adaptation of August Wilson\u2019s award-winning classic Fences<\/a> at Mark Taper Forum. The production will be mounted at the Center Theatre Group venue from May 26-July 3, 2027.<\/p>\n

\n\tSet in segregated Pittsburgh in the 1950s, Fences focuses on Troy Maxson, a former Negro League baseball star who finds himself scraping together a living as a sanitation worker. His bitterness and anger soon start to cause ripple effects inside the home he shares with wife Rose and son Cory, who is seeking his own pro baseball career. Per an official logline, Fences \u201cexplores the walls we build around ourselves and our loved ones, while also illuminating one family\u2019s struggles in a racist society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe gig reunites Rashad with CTG, for whom she has worked as both a director and actress across such productions as A Raisin in the Sun, another Wilson adaptation in Joe Turner\u2019s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey\u2019s Black Bottom, Immediate Family, Blues for an Alabama Sky and Head of Passes. It also has significance for CTG: With the production, L.A.\u2019s artistic operation completes the \u201cCentury Cycle\u201d after having previously staged Wilson\u2019s other nine plays of the cycle.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have deep admiration for the theatrical canon of August Wilson, having performed in one and directed many of his plays over the course of my career,\u201d Rashad says. \u201cAt their core, his plays offer a vital reflection of human dignity, shared history and spiritual depth, and have become, for good reason, some of the most highly regarded and produced works in the history of the American theater<\/a>. I am thrilled to return once again to the Mark Taper Forum, where I have my own shared history, this time to direct one of his greatest plays. I look forward to sharing Fences with Los Angeles next summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdds Snehal Desai, who serves as Brindell and Milton Gottlieb artistic director: \u201cThere is something deeply moving about reaching this milestone with Phylicia \u2014 an artist of extraordinary grace, vision and stature \u2014 bringing Wilson\u2019s words to life on the Taper stage. One legend illuminating the work of another, in a theatre that has long been a home for groundbreaking American stories. And to have these histories converge in Los Angeles on the eve of CTG\u2019s 60th anniversary feels especially meaningful \u2014 a celebration not only of where we have been, but of the artists, stories and audiences who will carry us into the next 60 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFences has a long history of adaptations from stages to screens. Notably, in 2016, it was adapted by Denzel Washington who directed a version starring himself opposite Viola Davis. Both Davis and Washington were nominated for Academy Awards as actors \u2014\u00a0Davis won an Oscar trophy for best supporting actress \u2014 and the film earned a best picture nomination.<\/p>\n

\n\tRashad was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2016. She was nominated for a Tony for starring in the Wilson adaptation of Gem of the Ocean on Broadway. Her directing credits include a debut at the Seattle Repertory Theater also with Wilson\u2019s Gem of the Ocean. In 2025 she directed Branden Jacobs Jenkins\u2019 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning Purpose on Broadway after a run at Steppenwolf. Rashad\u2019s other directing credits include Stephen Adly Guirgis\u2019 Our Lady of 121st Street, The Roommate, A Raisin in the Sun and Four Little Girls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phylicia Rashad is heading to downtown Los Angeles for her next directing project. The multi-hyphenate talent has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[186191,186192,48,52,51,47,50,49,186193,1058],"class_list":["post-473396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-center-theater-group","tag-fences","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-phylicia-rashad","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}